A puzzle and Cats!

I put together a jigsaw puzzle today! This afternoon I cashed in one of my babysitting coupons from Jacob, so while Jacob, Lukas, Katie, and Helen were out (they went to the playground and to the Salt Lake park), I got a really good start on the puzzle Jacob gave me for my birthday. I had the whole frame put together and quite a bit of the inside pieces sorted by color by the time they got back an hour later, and had heard half of the soundtrack of Cats. I did keep going back to it throughout the afternoon (I had it on a table in the middle of the living room which had been put there earlier when Lukas and I had played a game), but that wasn't overly practical. Once the children were in bed I put on the second half of Cats and had finished Cats and almost finished the puzzle before Jörn and I went out for a walk. Home again, last 28 pieces, and I'm pleased to have done my first puzzle in many years. :-) (I'm not counting the wooden duck puzzle, which has about 10 pieces, nor the 20-50-piece puzzles I've done with Katie and Helen. Over and over and over again.) Only 500 pieces, but it was exciting anyway. With two children old enough to occasionally babysit, maybe I'll even start the 1500-piece puzzle I got for Christmas a couple of years ago. Eventually. Maybe.

The last biggish puzzle (also 500 pieces) I did was a satellite view of Europe, which my sister Ruth and I stayed up most of the night to do when she was visiting us, seven or eight years ago. It's hanging on the wall in our kitchen. My kind of art. And I think it may have even been longer since I had listened to Cats, but I could sing along with almost every word (if far from every note). I only ever used to listen to music while doing puzzles and in the car, but since coming to Cyprus, don't have much opportunity in the car as almost no place I go takes more than five minutes or so.